Tag - Reader

You could carry on reading Wikipedia articles in Safari on your iPhone, and we wouldn't think you're a bad person. Offline readers are a nice idea, though, because they bring certain advantages. Chief among the benefits of WikiExplorer 1.1 for iOS would be that it's free -- at least at the time of writing. Go get it, go get the in-app purchase to eradicate advertisements which today is also briefly free, then have a play.

There's a fair chance that e-books have stopped their attempt to mass-assassinate paperbacks, because it looks to us as if each have found their niche. There are advantages to each, and we'd find it a dull world if the sole way to read books was via an e-reader. We do say that fully aware that we're writers and publishers, but now so are you. There is nothing that beats the feeling of that paperback book in your hands. We might not do too many copies in paperback, we might sell far more so on the iBooks and Kindle Stores, but as well as the rewarding sense of achievement you get from that bound paper, there are practical benefits to making a paperback. They're practical benefits that will help you get the e-book right, to make the e-book better.

Perhaps the paperback versus e-book war is levelling out, with the old physical format doing well again in the way that radio rebounded after television initially broke it. If so, we may be ready to call it: for all their great advantages, e-books never managed to be as pleasant a reading experience as printed books. Except that iBouquiniste 3.5.1 for iOS, and its Mac equivalent iBouquiniste 1.3 for OS X, continue to have a very good go at being a book lover's favorite reader.

Apple has announced that the expansion of the Apple Watch to new countries is continuing, with an emphasis on the Middle East. The wearable will become available in several regional countries, including Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Israel, and Kuwait beginning February 11, according to notices on the Apple website in those countries. In addition, the Apple Watch will launch in Greece on February 12. None of the countries in the latest set of rollouts have physical Apple Stores, so the debuts will happen through resellers.

Sometimes you long for an app to be updated because it's got something wrong with it. Just occasionally, though, you long for it to be updated because you really like it, you spend hours using it and you want to see what the developer does next. That's the case for us with Reeder 3.0, the latest iOS version of the newsreading app.

Depending where you are in the world, iOS 9 may have just brought you Apple News: an app that gathers articles from your preferred news sources, and pops them into one handy app. It's good, we like it, and we like it so much that MacNN has been part of it since day one -- but it isn't for people who read hundreds of articles or thousands of words a day: Reeder 3.0 is. Actually, Reeder 2.0 was too, and even back in the Stone Age of Reeder 1.0, it was the newsreading app to beat.

You're going to end up reading more on your Apple Watch than you imagine. Yes, you're just supposed to glance at it to see who's sent that new email but, come on: you'll scroll through reading it all. The screen is more than good enough that you can do this, and you simply will. What you may resist more is the notion of reading an entire book this way. That's what Wear Reader wants you to do: one quick word at a time.

The human brain is an incredible organ. It's said that every human brain contains something comparable to 2.5 petrabytes (or about 2.5 million gigabytes) worth of "space" for knowledge and memories. That equals somewhere just over 300 million hours worth of video, which we find phenomenally impressive. What better way to start filling up that storage than with a little light reading? What if you could do a lot of light reading -- to the tune of 600 words a minute or more? That's why we checked out Rapid Reader by Wasdesign, an app that helps you speed read all of your favorite content on the Internet.

It appears that Amazon recently began directing consumers looking for a Kindle Paperwhite to a new version of the popular e-reader. The listing modification had occurred with what appeared to be no changes in the e-reader. As it turns out, a minor change did take place in the amount of storage that is included in the unit.

Amazon has formally introduced its new Paperwhite e-book reader, after the device was listed and quickly pulled from the company's inventory earlier today. Customers can place preorders for the basic model, which costs $119 with a September 30 shipping estimate, while the 3G edition jumps to $189 with expected availability in early November.

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Cirrus creates Lightning-headphone dev kit

Apple supplier Cirrus Logic has introduced a MFi-compliant new development kit for companies interested in using Cirrus' chips to create Lightning-based headphones, which -- regardless of whether rumors about Apple dropping the analog headphone jack in its iPhone this fall -- can offer advantages to music-loving iOS device users. The kit mentions some of the advantages of an all-digital headset or headphone connector, including higher-bitrate support, a more customizable experience, and support for power and data transfer into headphone hardware. Several companies already make Lightning headphones, and Apple has supported the concept since June 2014. http://bit.ly/29giiZj

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Apple Store app offers Procreate Pocket

The Apple Store app for iPhone, which periodically rewards users with free app gifts, is now offering the iPhone "Pocket" version of drawing app Procreate for those who have the free Apple Store app until July 28. Users who have redeemed the offer by navigating to the "Stores" tab of the app and swiping past the "iPhone Upgrade Program" banner to the "Procreate" banner have noted that only the limited Pocket (iPhone) version of the app is available free, even if the Apple Store app is installed and the offer redeemed on an iPad. The Pocket version currently sells for $3 on the iOS App Store. [32.4MB]

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Porsche adds CarPlay to 2017 Panamera

Porsche has added a fifth model of vehicle to its CarPlay-supported lineup, announcing that the 2017 Panamera -- which will arrive in the US in January -- will include Apple's infotainment technology, and be seen on a giant 12.3-inch touchscreen as part of an all-new Porsche Communication Management system. The luxury sedan starts at $99,900 for the 4S model, and scales up to the Panamera Turbo, which sells for $146,900. Other vehicles that currently support CarPlay include the 2016 911 and the 2017 models of Macan, 718 Boxster, and 718 Cayman. The company did not mention support for Google's corresponding Android Auto in its announcement. http://bit.ly/295ZQ94

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Apple employees testing wheelchair features

New features included in the forthcoming watchOS 3 are being tested by Apple retail store employees, including a new activity-tracking feature that has been designed with wheelchair users in mind. The move is slightly unusual in that, while retail employees have previously been used to test pre-release versions of OS X and iOS, this marks the first time they've been included in the otherwise developer-only watchOS betas. The company is said to have gone to great lengths to modify the activity tracker for wheelchair users, including changing the "time to stand" notification to "time to roll" and including two wheelchair-centric workout apps. http://bit.ly/2955JDa

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SanDisk reveals two 256GB microSDXC cards

SanDisk has introduced two 256GB microSDXC cards. Arriving in August for $150, the Ultra microSDXC UHS-I Premium Edition card offers transfer speeds of up to 95MB/s for reading data. The Extreme microSDXC UHS-I card can read at a fast 100MB/s and write at up to 90MB/s, and will be shipping sometime in the fourth quarter for $200. http://bit.ly/294Q1If

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Apple's third-quarter results due July 26

Apple has advised it will be issuing its third-quarter results on July 26, with a conference call to answer investor and analyst queries about the earnings set to take place later that day. The stream of the call will go live at 2pm PT (5pm ET) via Apple's investor site, with the results themselves expected to be released roughly 30 minutes before the call commences. Apple's guidance for the quarter put revenue at between $41 billion and $43 billion. http://apple.co/1oi1Pbm

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Twitter stickers slowly roll out to users

Twitter has introduced "stickers," allowing users to add extra graphical elements to their photos before uploading them to the micro-blogging service. A library of hundreds of accessories, props, and emoji will be available to use as stickers, which can be resized, rotated, and placed anywhere on the photograph. Images with stickers will also become searchable with viewers able to select a sticker to see how others use the same graphic in their own posts. Twitter advises stickers will be rolling out to users over the next few weeks, and will work on both the mobile apps and through the browser. http://bit.ly/29bbwUE